I recently bought a screen printing frame from you which, until now, has been used in a university laboratory. It’s a 90T frame measuring 65×80.
I was wondering if any of the following are feasible:
– if I buy the emulsion from you, is it possible to expose the frame using just sunlight, I mean without having any suitable UV lamps?
– can I prepare the design at home using a domestic high-pressure cleaner, or do I need to add particular solutions to the water?
– after printing, how long can the screen be left without being cleaned with a stripper?
I shall answer your questions in the order that you asked them:
– In theory yes, because the sun emits strong UV rays. But from a practical standpoint, it’s impossible to obtain consistent results time after time, because sunlight is very variable. For each exposure you would need to carry out tests to find exactly the right exposure time. And this would mean an incredible waste of time and screens.
– It’s certainly possible to prepare the screens at home and you don’t need a pressure-cleaner to do it, you can simply use a shower head with moderate pressure. Water is sufficient for preparing the screens, no additives are required.
– After printing it is vital that any traces of ink are removed from the screen before it dries. After that the screen can be kept indefinitely.
It can be reused for printing or regenerated using a stripper and exposed with a different design. But there are no time constraints within which that needs to be done.